Now here is a surprise: Last Exile returns with a flashback episode. This episode is actually entirely dedicated to showing one moment in the past of the main cast: the point the fathers of Fam and Giselda participated in a vanship race, which seemed to be a national holiday, and the point at which they died. I did not expect that, but it definitely was a welcome addition.
What I especially liked was how the creators found a way to show everyone’s past at the same time. By making this a national event they tied a lot of those backstories together, because everyone had his or her own reason to be there, plus it would also make sense for, if you’re planning to assassinate a queen, the best point is where she’s out in the open (this actually also happened once in the Netherlands, although the attempt failed there).
It’s a shame that the animators were clearly forced to rush though this episode, because there was a lot of heart put into it. And heck, we already had seen Fam’s younger versions, but there were so many characters here who also showed off who they were when they were younger, ranging from Milia, to all of the villains, to even the Gracies girls. It’s a huge amount of character development here, and even though it’s a bit dramatic, it did give quite a few hints to how they would grow up, and why they made the decisions they made. Plus, the small Fam, Milia and Giselda were really adorable together.
And yeah, the animation. What’s interesting though, is the way in which Gonzo decided to compromise. This episode forcefully borrowed some animation from the OP directly, even though it didn’t fit at all, there were a ton of distorted faces. There also wasn’t much fluidity in the animation. And yet the one thing that wasn’t compromsied on is the attention to detail. There still were a ton of character designs in all sorts of different shapes, colours and styles. There still were a ton of screens with a ton of different people on it at the same time. The backgrounds still are gorgeous. And yeah, that’s gorgeous: they’re really bad at one thing, and yet really good at the other.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Can’t wait to really watch this episode, really like what it appears to cover. 🙂
Yes there may be a reason why everyone is there. But it just doesn’t sit well with me. Idk. It just feels that the MOE level just increased because of that. I don’t think it’s even necessary to do that. They could just NOT show half of the characters there, and it would still be a good episode
Uh, I think it’s pretty self explanatory, it’s THE worldwide peace event every country comes level/style event where people from all of the nations gather and given these characters (Fam and Giselle were already confirmed there back in ep 3 to see the race, and almost everyone else we know is directly connected to various royalty and governments so they essentially had to be there) it’s obvious almost all of them should and had to have been there, the only ones who could have potentially not been there I think were the Glacies/Gracies pilots.
Except ofcourse for the Anatoray people who are ofcourse not since they haven’t actually arrived from Prester yet (since they’ve only been here two years). 🙂
“Uh,” should be “Hmm,”
They actually described the huge level of worldwide gathering these were back in ep 3.
This episode is quite a big development actually…
Too bad the animation quality really suffered… 🙁
Is it due to budget constraints? I wished that they made Fam on a better budget…
I never realized that Guilders were THAT powerful… In that perspective, that Lasas hijack wasn’t farfetched after all…
Also, this episode seems to show that Fam was actually from a Prester…
Overall, it could have been a very nice episode. The animation and a bit of writing flaws watered this down though…
I’m kinda on Alec with this one, yeah worldwide event blah blah blah the whole “all of the cast being in the same place at the same time in a flash back”(which had a plausible reason so not too much complaining about that) and the “main characters who just met actually met as children in this same flashback” are horribly bad cliches and just shows lazy writing. I literally ROLLED MY EYES when little Fam met little Milia” you just DON’T do that in a story period. its contrived, and wastes time that could have been better used for other things.
The animation was pretty bad at parts, and it made it seem like the queeen and the guards (not the guilders) were just standing around waiting for the queen to be shot to progress the story. . .I was left wondering a few times “uhh why don’t they EVACUATE THE QUEEN instead of standing there?!?” They could have had one guild dude take care of the assassins and the other flee with the queen while the other guards fight off the assassins etc. . .hell, luskinia(“lukia”) could have grabbed the queen, jumped off some where and ran to “safety” to which maybe would have led to an ambush bomb thingy or something(since the queen had to die) personally I think it was a very sloppy episode plot/writing wise. I was just going “meh” for the most part except for Gisey’s father Dying. . .that got me interested. . .too bad he died for nothing -.-. . .I really think the whole flashback episode could have been skipped and they just could continue with the story as we pretty much already knew what happened, who won the grand race, why lusckinia is bent on taking over the world “hint: Revenge” (the writers have been beating us over the head with that since episode 1. . .I don’t think the majority of the views are retards the writers could treat us like we have some intelligence). . .
I hope this show gets better, because really even at this point, it pales in comparison to the epic that last exile 1 was. . .
P.S. Im pretty sure that Claus and Lavi are dead, just from looking at the op, the few hints that Alvis “lost someone important to her” and the absence of even mentioning them, I mean hell they even had VINCENT show up. . .it seems the writers wanna milk the “I wanna see claus and lavi” crowd until they cant troll anymore.
I think everyone is making a mistake with Kaiser. He’s NOT related to Fam at all, but is one of Atamora’s sky pirate friends. Fam is an orphan, remember that.
Just a question…….who fertilized the damn queen!?
It is really ridiculous……the baby is a couple of months old and no sign of the father. Hate it when shows neglect the natural logic and the significance of the father if he is king.
Yup, and Kaiser’s not related to Gisey either, Atamora’s her dad and we know her mom too.
There’s still time to mention the father. He’s not around for Sara even in the present as at least so far she’s still under Vasant’s care so maybe he had recently died in battle and/or that’s what’s changed Farahnaz’s goal to peace and making up for her sins for him and her new daughter? Maybe they’ll address what happened to him later?
Ofcourse they had to show THE event that re-sparked the current war and that caused Luscinia’s current path and also how Liliana connected with Farahnaz which if she’s not brainwashed (and Millia said she did not believe this was the case) likely has some bearing on what she’s upto either why she’s decided to side with Luscinia or why she’ll do something in the future.
“P.S. Im pretty sure that Claus and Lavi are dead, just from looking at the op, the few hints that Alvis “lost someone important to her” and the absence of even mentioning them, I mean hell they even had VINCENT show up. . .it seems the writers wanna milk the “I wanna see claus and lavi” crowd until they cant troll anymore.”
They probably aren’t, they may still show up, it’s highly unlikely characters that prominent would die offscreen and it’s unlikely their appearance would get spoiled in the OP when they weren’t there in the OP from the very first ep, and re-watch with better subs, watch the Funi stream of that conversation and it’s most likely Dio is referencing her generally rough past with the loss of her entire family and then her caretaker in Gita when Al had to flee her home when Delphine tried to purge the other Guild houses for their mysteriums.
It would be a rather weird way to introduce someone to someone they’d never met before and Al’s not overly particularly depressed in that scene like she’d probably be if it were really Claus and Lavie, and they would have to have died really recently since they’re still alive in the Hourglass manga, less than 2 years before the start of Fam. Not impossible, but I don’t really think it’s likely.
Also perhaps even more significant, note that Dio also probably would likely have had a far more depressed expression and voice unless he’s already had a good amount of time to deal with the loss and not just said in a calm friendly fashion praising Alvis’s inner character that “Despite all the people she’s lost and hardships she’s endured, Al is always kind and considerate of others” if it were Claus since he’s not someone only important to Al but himself as well. I definitely feel it’s more like what the Funi subs said, she’s had a rough past and lost people before, but is tough, kind, and still more considerate of others than just herself.
I definitely think they’re alive until specified otherwise.